Has anyone seen my drink?

Well... It turned out to be a lovely evening last night. Steve, Erin, Tas, and I went to P.F. Changs, proceeded to have several drinks and some pretty good laughs. I thought it was pretty funny when the waiter brought us straws for our water and Tas, Steve, and I unwrapped them and put them in our alcoholic beverages instead...

After dinner, we had an hour-and-a-half to blow before the movie, so we got ice cream at Amy's (where Erin double-dared Tas to eat the display cone, a dare that he just couldn't pass up). We then went to Gamemasters and played some video games. (I think Erin is having a laugh at Tas' expense... I can't say that I remember that clearly...)


After the arcade, we saw "Waiting," a movie about the in's and out's of the restaurant industry. It was the funniest movie I have seen in awhile and pretty true to all of the restaurants I worked at... I am so glad that I no longer wait tables, although it was a pretty good gig most of the time. When we were cruising back to the car, I couldn't help but admire a convertible along the way... My goodness it was a fun evening!

Well, now that Grey's Anatomy is almost over, I guess I had better stop farting around on the internet and start studying for my test tomorrow...

66H out...

TGIF! (You have NO idea!)

Wow, all I can say is wow. It played out to be a long, long week... We were all getting a little stir-crazy after being in the same auditorium for 8 hours a day every day this week (10 hours on both Wednesday and Thursday). See examples below...

Question of the day (Thursday):
"What, no rhombi?" Posed by my friend Steve after inspecting a
doodle I created late in the afternoon. (Pictured at right.) I laughed so hard, I nearly had tears in my eyes. Simply put, he enjoys using the plural form of words ending in "us".

Quote of the early morning (Friday): Audrey - "You just don't care, do you?" Steve - "LOOK at my face..." (He was pointing to the near-scowl on his face as he said it.)

Quote of the mid-morning (Friday): Erin - "I haven't felt this suicidal in days..." (She foolishly failed to get a cup of coffee after our first break of the morning... Silly Erin!)

Quote of the afternoon (Friday): Erin - "I hate my beret. Can I just reiterate that?" (Her beret shrank, and it now leaves a red indentation across her forehead when she wears it.)

Song of the day: Bob Dylan's "Tangled Up in Blue". It came on the radio as we were driving to dinner. It was quite calming after a less-than-pleasant day.

Moving on... A bunch of us went out to dinner at Macaroni Grill tonight to celebrate surviving the gauntlet that was "massive information briefing overload" week. Good food, a good bottle of Chardonnay, and a MASSIVE slice of tiramisu made the whole week disappear...

I am not quite sure what is on the docket this weekend, except for laundry, homework, and the weekly trip to Wal-Mart of course. I will be sure to blog if anything materializes...

66H out

Mas salsa por favor!

My goodness!! It was officially cold today for this Cali girl! 42 degrees and raining when I walked out of the building for PT at 5:10 this morning. Burrr... Good thing we only PT'd for 40 minutes today. Although, I have to say that I had a pretty fast one-mile run time this morning, let's just say I was highly motivated by the hot shower waiting for me back in my room...

Other than that it was a pretty tame day, just learning how to use some of the Army's computer systems... all day, for six hours... "Train to Save" (the greeting our company uses when saluting), or as I say, "10 of Morphine"...

The two best things that happened today: I got the last CD I was waiting for to finish my project. I have been working on it for almost two months and I am excited to get it finished up! I also went to my first salsa lesson tonight!! I am going to start going every Monday and Thursday, then maybe I can be as big of a salsa-queen as Jamie... Never!!

Anyways, not much else is going on except for a new episode of Laguna Beach on MTV tonight. Ahhhhhhh, shoot me!! I'm addicted.

66H out

Wow, is it midnight already?

My, my. I always find myself blogging when I should be sleeping... But something about shining my boots prompted an introspective moment that deserved a blog. It is amazing that I can go out and beat the hell out of my boots to the point that they look like there is no chance they will recover, and yet one coat of kiwi, a soft brush and 25 minutes later they look almost new. I always thought that was a neat little phenomenon; I wish everything was that easy.

Well, the introspective moment has passed and I have PT at zero-dark-thirty this morning, so I need to finish up my Oreos and milk and hit the sack. Mmmm, Oreos so good...

66H out...

Caverns and Salsa!!

Today (I guess it was really yesterday at this point) some friends and I went to see some natural caverns about 20 minutes outside of San Antonio. They are amazing! All of the formations are so cool and even the bat guano from 5,000 years ago is still preserved!! Although I have to admit that my favorite part was the dinosaur...

Song that I had stuck in my head all day: "Died in Your Arms" by Cutting Crew. It played on Erin's iPod on the way to the caverns today and I ended up singing it all day, then downloading it from Napster, so that I could have it on my Dell DJ too. I had forgotten how great that song is. (Geez, is that last sentence even grammatically correct? Oh wait, was that what my upper division writing class was for? Guess I should have paid better attention...)

Biggest indulgence of the day (uhh, besides the jeans...): A full pedicure at the Wal-Mart nail salon. Kelly Preston gets her tootsies done at the local Wal-Mart when John Travolta flys them to their vacation home, so Sarah and I decided, if it is good enough for Kelly Preston...


After dinner, we went to Graham's Central Station to dance. Just as the natural caverns, all of the music styles at Graham's are neatly preserved by room. They have six themed dance floors. One room is top 40 80's music, one is country, one is hip-hop, one is salsa, one is rap, and the other is disco. Totally out of control! We spent the majority of the evening in the salsa room, so I proceeded to salsa my butt off with Luis (a spanish-only speaking Guatemalan dude that asked me to dance). Thank goodness my friend Miguel speaks Spanish and helped me talk to him. Luis ended up being a super cool guy that can cut the meanest salsa rug... I once told my super-salsa friend Jamie that if I salsa danced one more time, I would be so addicted that I would start taking lessons -- Apparently they teach salsa on Monday and Thursday evenings here on post in the gym, so I just might have to check it out...

Well, it is once again 4 in the morning and I guess I'd better turn in...

66H out...

A fresh haircut always makes me smile...

Well, we are back from our LAST WEEK IN THE FIELD! And yes, I do realize that I was just yelling in computerland... As for our last week out in the wild: We did so much hand-to-hand combatives this week, it was out of control. I definitely won't be wearing shorts and a tank top this weekend for fear that people might think I was actually beaten up. Wow. By Thursday the natives were getting restless, and we were all ready to come back to civilization. To our surprise, the cadre had us on the bus by 1:00 PM this afternoon, so that was awesome!

Treat of the afternoon: Hearing Dexy's Midnight Runners' "Come on Eileen" on the way to Northstar Mall for a haircut. Haircut you say? Oh yes, I chopped it. I have received rave reviews so far, so I am chalking it up to a success! Personally, I think it is the best cut that I have ever had.

Treat of the evening: Stuffing myself at PF Chang's with some OBC friends, then filling in the cracks with some strawberry ice cream from Amy's.

The best thing that happened to me today: I got the raddest birthday gifts in the mail today! (Right now, a pirate would be burying the booty... ha-ha!!) Now that I have all of you scratching your heads... I got a fun "What Would a Pirate Do?" Pee-Chee folder that has a skull-and-crossbones spinner on the front, so when I get bored out of my skull in class, I can spin it to different actions that a pirate might do on his ship in everyday life. I also got a box of Band-Aids that look like strips of bacon! I love the fact that my favorite breakfast meat and an essential item in my first-aid aresenal have found each other... I even got a little toy pig in the box! Lastly, I got the coolest shower curtain with a black cat on it that looks almost exactly like the cat tatoo I have on my back!! The box of aforementioned treasures, plus the t-shirts I ordered from Palmer Cash absolutely made my day!

Tomorrow, it is off to see the caverns outside of San Antonio, then it is out to party a little bit in the evening... Boys watch out, Audrey is sporting her new and improved 'do!

66H out...

A blog for the road

As I was checking my e-mail for the last time tonight before bed, I read a very nice comment about my last blog, and it reminded me how lucky I am to be alive, healthy, and doing what I love. It was also a gentle reality check after spending the whole day slightly moping about a phone call I was looking forward to all week, and didn't get... oh well, maybe next weekend. I bet after a few chocolate cream Oreo's and a glass of cold milk, I will be happy as a clam again, at least until I fall asleep...

Well, I am off to rest up for convoy training, casualty evacuation operations, and plenty of tactical road marching this week...

Until next Saturday, when we are once again allowed to return to civilization...

I can feel my brain cells screaming as they die...

As I eat my Whataburger and drink my phosphoric acid-laden, yet addictively tasty Coca-Cola, I once again find myself watching MTV, downloading music, and blogging while waiting for my laundry to dry. I have decided that my Id is stuck on warp-speed trying to catch up for the near decade that I spent going to school full-time, working full-time, and then adding ROTC into the mix for the last three years of Nursing school. Unfortunately, if my Ego can't catch up, I'll be in trouble!! Ha-ha. I feel bad for Mr. Sedaris, he sits on my nightstand - lonely and unread night after night, which for those of you that know me well, is a rarity.

I have successfully procrastinated packing for the field all day... I did, however, make it to Wal-Mart, so I feel that I have met my self-imposed daily exposure to culture...

Well, the dryer, as if she were a siren, is calling me. No wait... it's actually another Lieutenant looking for the owner of the dry clothes so she can use the dryer.

66H out...

Why am I still awake?

Well, I just posted not 8 hours ago and yet I find myself posting again at 4:07 in the morning! Not quite sure why sleep has not taken over after such a long week, but I am just not tired. So I have been cruising around some of my friends' blogs. Jamie and her ALIAS postings eliminated the need for me to do any sit-ups tonight because I was laughing so hard (in a good way; my obsession happens to be Boston Legal and Grey's Anatomy rather than ALIAS). Speaking of obsessions; now that I have cable in my room, I have been hooked up to MTV as if it were an IV... I just can't seem to get enough of The Real World - Austin, Laguna Beach (the troubled lives of rich teens in Southern California), Next (this crazy dating show), and My Super Sweet Sixteen (so disgusting I could vomit, yet absolutely fascinating at the same time. Sort of like a horrendous car accident on the freeway, you just have to slow down even though it is horrible). Geoff's blog just made me laugh because he always has such interesting insights about himself and life in general... You are right Geoff, an extra $800 a month would buy a lot of Bud. ;)

So excited, I am going to the biggest laundromat in San Antonio, followed by the Wal-Mart Supercenter later on today... always a fun way to observe the local population. It is definitely different than California out here, very different...

Well, now that I have blown another half-hour blogging, downloading music and watching MTV (I told you... like an IV), my eyelids finally feel heavy enough to go to sleep, so I am off to bed.

The field: Week two

Hello all!

Well, we are back from the field again... More fun to be had next week as well, but this week was great. It wasn't as hot as last week and everything we learned this week was new to me, so I had a blast and it made the week fly by. I qualified with the M9 pistol this week, so that was quite exciting. We also learned hand-to-hand combatives, mounted land navigation (essentially, it is navigating with a map in a vehicle), and how to carry a casualty on a litter over various obstacles. It was quite a physical week and I felt like a truck ran over me when I got up this morning, but some friends and I went tubing on the Guadalupe River and I felt better after relaxing on the water all day.

Other than that, I am just getting ready to go back out to the field on Monday. One more week to go, then it is back to garrison to resume classes...

The new "L-Tee" signing out...

Oh so much fun in the field!

Well, she's back from her first week in the field...

For those of you not too familiar with the lingo, "the field" is the best part of Army training... it is the farthest thing from nursing, and that is what I love about it. We get to do Land Navigation, shoot weapons (I will be adding the M9 to my reperatoire this coming week), learn how to assemble radios and secure-line telephones, and just get dirty in general! It was quite hot last week, so it was a little miserable, but a good time nontheless! We go back out tomorrow for another week of fun, and then another week after that.

Well, that is about it for now. I am off to the Whataburger for my new favorite thing, a burger with bacon, cheese, guacamole and jalapenos!

66 hotel signing out... (that is my actual job title! I find it funny that someone as small as myself is a hotel! Ha-ha.)

Still blazin' in San Antonio

Well, I have the first week of classes under my belt and I have learned a lot more than I anticipated! I am not quite sure why, but administrative duties continue to follow me! I am the platoon S-1 once again, good thing I have nearly mastered the art... ha-ha. Actually, it is a good continuity position for me, and I hope to get the gig for the remainder of the OBC Nurse track. Today we toured the Army Medical Department Museum. It was an excellent historical presentation and quite awe inspiring; I can't wait to start contributing to its future history.

It is still hot, hot, hot here. Quite odd to still be in shorts and a tank top in October and to use the air conditioning at 8 in the morning on the way to class. But hey, I can't complain too much since I am always cold. On a different note, we are off to do some field training this week. It will be nice to be out of the classroom and get in some good Army training, so much fun stuff!

Well, not much else is cracking here, so I am off to pack for the week...